


The Hathaways

by Miraal



Category: One Direction (Band)
Genre: AU, Angst, Comedy, High School, M/M, Pining, Romance, Sorta I guess, some fuckery
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-08-15
Updated: 2016-08-25
Packaged: 2018-08-09 01:21:52
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Underage
Chapters: 3
Words: 15,750
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7781377
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Miraal/pseuds/Miraal
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>After Niall refuses to move to Japan with his parents, they propose he stays with their old friends in London; the Hathaways. The Hathaways has four adopted sons who make Niall’s life a living hell, some unintentionally, some very intentionally.</p><p>Or an Au in which Niall has moved from continent to continent since he wore diapers and just wants to belong somewhere, Harry is the most adorable 13-year old to walk on earth and gets attached too easily, Louis holds grudges for ages and is the meanest of the bunch, Zayn has an obsession with painting naked people and Liam is every parent’s wet dream…and most probably Niall’s as well.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> hi everyone! i'm still alive and breathing lmao
> 
> i haven't written anything in literally _forever_ and trust me, there's nothing i've missed more. this is old work that i deleted but that stirred my inspiration so ive decided to wrok on it. hopefully it'll break me out of this drought.
> 
> one direction has been on a break for more the better part of the year and i honestly dont know if people still read 1d fics as much as they used to it. either way, enjoy this first chapter
> 
> disclaimer; i own nothing
> 
> very loosely based on megan meade's guide to the mcgowan boys by kate brian

chapter one

“Japan,” repeats Niall Horan, staring blankly at his parents standing before him. His mother nods eagerly, big earring hopping up and down and hitting her cheeks. She puts her head against Bob Horan’s shoulder and gazes up at him adoringly. “You father got a better job offer there and it’s always been a dream of ours to live there,” Maura says and then she squeals, sounding more like a teenage girl than an actual mother. Bob just looks at her fondly, kissing her nose; the display makes Niall want to turn around and gag. 

His mother has always had an unhealthy obsession with Japan (in Niall’s opinion) what with wearing kimonos, eating sushi nearly every day and eating with chopsticks, but this, this is taking it too far; once again, they’re taking him down with them.

“No,” Niall says firmly and turns around, returning to messaging his best friend, Jasmine, a smile tugging at his lips when she sends a particularly funny text. 

 

“Niall, we’re moving in a week’s time, you should pack,” Bob says and Niall’s throat goes dry, like someone rubbed sandpaper against it and he slowly spins around in his swivel chair, gaping at his father. He’d thought it was some kind of joke, because sure, his parents have been dragging him around the globe ever since he wore diapers, but it was usually just around Western hemisphere not fucking _Japan_ on the other side of this godforsaken globe; they couldn’t be serious, he’d just settled into Dublin; which they’d only been living in for three years and he’d just settled into his high school. They couldn’t do this to him.

“You’re actually serious! You want to drag me across the globe to a country with a whole other tradition and culture and _language_ in my most crucial formative years?” Niall spoke, voice ringing with bottled up anger. His parents exchange wary looks, before his mother let go of his father and walks over, kneeling down in front of Niall, giving her only son a distasteful view of her cleavage in her ridiculously low-cut dress.

“Baby, you know this has been my dream and so does your daddy, as soon as he was offered the job, he took it,” his mother beams excitedly up at him. “It’s going to be so exciting and don’t worry about making new friends, you’re always so good at doing that!” Niall’s left eyebrow twitches, if his mother bothered paying more attention to him than the recent celebrity gossip, then maybe she’d known how fucking lonely he’d been the first year here in Ireland when they’d forced him to leave all his friends back in Germany. “And Japan is going to be so wonderful, baby, the culture, the people, it’s going to be so different from anything we’ve tried so far!” Maura takes his hands and shakes them excitedly but Niall just returns her beaming expression with one of pure rage.

“This is bullshit!” he shouts, jumping dramatically to his feet and flailing with his arms. 

“Niall! Don’t talk to your mother like that!” Bob reprimands.

“You can’t do this to me!” Niall wails, throwing a tantrum. “I’ve obediently followed you across the world, always being the new kid, always being that kid that didn’t belong, the pale Irish kid with no friends and funny accent, Ireland, South Africa, Norway, Spain, Austria, the US, Brazil, _Russia_ and then you told me Dublin is our final stop, but nooo, now you want me to go to Japan just when I’m I actually _like_ it here in Dublin and I’ve found a _best_ friend, I’ve never had a best friend before! I’m not going to Japan, I don’t even speak their language, how can you do this to me!” Niall throws himself dramatically to the floor and punches the floor like a three year old toddler; then again, Niall has always been a spoiled only brat and he always got what he wanted; but never when it came to this matter.

“You’re sixteen, Niall, act like it for God’s sake,” Bob says, rolling his eyes.

“I’m not going,” Niall says, sitting up with crossed legs and arms, staring defiantly up at his parents. “You’ll have to chain me up and throw me on the flight kicking and screaming. I’m not going to Japan.”

Bob sighs, pinching the bridge of his nose, Maura walks over and they share a silent conversation through their eyes; Niall hates when they do that, Niall hates them plainly and simply.

“Then let’s find common ground,” Bob says, finishing his creepy conversation with Maura and turns back to Niall. “Do you have any other suggestions?”

Niall blinks surprised, taken aback by his father’s words.

“I can live with Jasmine,” Niall says with a grin, reaching into his pocket for his phone. “I’m sure her parents won’t mind, they’re super cool,” he says, adding under his breath “unlike some others.” He already feels elevated at the thought; he’s never felt on the same wave-length in the way he feels with Jasmine; she’s so cool and funny and so _real_ , unlike all the flaccid kids roaming the high school halls.

“Oh, sweetheart, you can’t do that,” Maura says just as Niall’s thumb hovers over the dial button to Jasmine’s number and Niall looks up at her with a blank expression. “Why not?” he asks annoyed.

“Because Jasmine’s parents are busy-working people who have their hands full with their own children, they don’t have room for extra baggage,” His father replies to him.

“It’s not like I’m going to lie around, I’ll even help out and stuff!” Niall protests. “Please, can’t you give me this? I can’t move to Japan, I’m just beginning to adjust to this high school, I don’t want to be a new kid in high school, I’ve _seen_ what happens!” Niall remembers all the lonely kids, littering in the corners; he’d been lucky to meet Jasmine before school started, he’ll never get that lucky.

“Well, there’s another option,” Maura says, fighting down a smile and looks toward her husband. 

“What?” Niall asks.

“Do you remember the Hathaways?” Maura asks. Niall blinks, nose scrunching up. “Uhm…do you mean dad’s old friends? The ones who ran around the world adopting kids? The ones living in London? _Those_ Hathaways?”

“That’s them!” Maura says, clapping her hands together excitedly. “We visited them back in 2004, remember?”

Niall looks up at the ceiling thoughtfully and he very vaguely remembers a snotty nose, grubby dirty hands, evil blue eyes and a grin too wicked to be a kid’s. Niall shudders a little. Last he remembers, the Hathaways’ adopted kids were pure evil.

“If you’re really sure about not coming with us to Japan,” His dad says slowly, eyeing Niall. “They have really cool festivals,” his mother stage-whispers to him, Niall ignores her. “Yes, I’m sure,” he says firmly.

“Then you can live with the Hathaways!” His mother squeals and locks her arm around her husband’s neck. “Seems like it’s going to be just the two of us, Bob, just like old times.”

Niall has a feeling they are just a little too excited about leaving without him.

“Wait! What? You mean to say you’re shipping me off to _London_ in _England_?” Niall says in disbelief. “How is that any different!? I don’t want to leave Dublin! Why not go with you to Japan if I’m going to _England_?”

“Well, we are thinking that going to London is a good compromise, it’s just the same as Dublin,” Maura says with a shrug and smiles. “Those are your choices Niall, either London or Japan. Make your choice now, we’re leaving in a week.”

“I hate you!” Niall shouts and runs out of the door.

+

“No, no, _no_ , you can’t _leave_!” Jasmine says, staring shocked at Niall with wide eyes. 

After Niall made his very stereotypical teenage exit with the classic ‘I hate you’, he went straight to Jasmine who lives down the street and she is just as shocked by the news. She shakes her head and jumps up from the bed.

“We should just run away together,” she says with a serious face.

“Sounds so tempting,” Niall moans, burying his face in her pillow, it smells of girly shampoo; it smells good. 

“They can’t just take you away _now_ ,” Jasmine says and flops down on the bed next to him. “I _need_ you here. we had big plans for this year, you were going to help me get noticed by Matt and I was going to help you get your first kiss! And we we’re going to throw an illegal party and make a bucket list and WHY ARE YOU LEAVING YOU LITTLE CUNT!” Jasmine hits him across the head with a pillow.

“I DON’T WANT TO,” Niall shouts back, grabbing a pillow and hitting her square in the face with it. She nearly falls off the bed but catches herself. “YOU CAN’T LEAVE ME. I’M GOING TO TIE YOU DOWN AND PUT YOU IN MY BASEMENT AND KEEP YOU THERE FOREVER!” she hits Niall again with the pillow and before long, they’re in a heated pillow fight.

Two seconds later, the door burst open and Jasmine’s younger brothers; two 4-year old twin boys rushes inside to see what all the commotion is about and when they see Jasmine and Niall pillow-fighting, they let out over-joyed laughs and crawl on top of the two teenagers.

“Nooo!” Niall exaggerates, falling down in defeat when one of the toddlers crawls on top of him. “We’re getting attacked by the nation of toddlers,” Jasmine laughs and playfully fights her little brother off. 

When Jasmine’s mother finally comes to see what’s going on, Niall and Jasmine have just finished tying the toddlers to the bed with scarves. Mrs. Black doesn’t look amused at all.

“Oh no! it’s the mother ship! Niall! Let’s escape,” Jasmine says and Niall shoots Mrs. Black an apologetic smile before dashing after Jasmine and crawling out of the window with her, the two of them running off like a pair of lunatics.

Niall gets on his bike and Jasmine hops onto the back.

“TO NARNIA!” She screams and Niall laughs so hard that they end up falling off the bike and roll around on the pavement, making an elderly couple cross to the other side of the street, staring at them like they’re mentally insane; which they most probably are, but only together.

“I’m going to miss you,” Niall says when his hysterical laughter dies down to a wheezy chortle. He rolls onto his back on the pavement and looks up the warm Summer Sun. Jasmine rolls on top of Niall and looks down at him. “So, you’re going to give up and just leave?” She asks. Niall sighs. “I don’t have a choice, I ‘m not allowed to stay at yours.”

“So, you’re going to this family in London or are you going all the way to Japan?” Jasmine asks bitterly, tugging painfully in Niall’s hair. Niall bats her hand away and tugs in her long dreadlocks in turn. 

“Japan would be too much right now,” Niall says and closes his eyes when purple spots swims in his vision from the sun. “Word, though it’d be cool,” Jasmine mutters, resting her head against Niall’s chest. “So, London, huh?” 

“London,” Niall replies, grimacing. “New school, the new kid, all over again. You’d think I’d get used to it by now, but I’m not. There should be a law against something like this.”

“Word,” Jasmine says. “Tell me about this family, are they cool? Or are you going to end up like Cindarella?”

“I don’t remember much about them, I was like six or something” Niall sluggishly rolls off the pavement when it becomes too hot. “My father and them go way back. They adopt kids, so I guess they are good people, or maybe they are just part of a secret organization that raises kids to sell their organs, I dunno.”

Jasmine snorts.

“That’d just be your luck.”

Niall grimaces.

“Yeah.”

+

They have four boys all around his age, his parents tells him when Niall returns home; he’d kind of hoped that his dramatic exit would change their mind or at least make them reconsider but they didn’t seem too concerned about sending Niall off to some British family with four adopted boys; Niall isn’t amused in the least.

“They’re so excited to have you stay with them for the duration of your high school years, the boys are super sweet as well,” Maura says. “Then when it comes to college, you can either continue here in London or join us in Japan or go wherever in the world you want! You can of course visit us in the breaks and who knows, you might fall in love with Japan!”

Niall ignores his mother blabbering, completely set on giving them the cold shoulder for the remaining of the week, because damn it, he’s angry and they don’t even care. 

He’s also kind of clinging onto the hope that they’ll relent and let him stay in Dublin with Jasmine. He even sings them a crappy, improvised song on his guitar where he moans about how unfair it is and how much he’ll hate them if they don’t let him stay, hoping that his stellar guitar will stir their sympathy.

(No such thing happens, and Niall finds himself packing his bags with Jasmine suggesting absurd ways of getting out of this in the background. Niall ends up telling her to shut up and help him pack).

+

As soon as the jet plane touches the ground of London Heathrow Airport, Niall is mournfully humming along to “Grey Matters” by the The Third Generation, feeling very sorry for himself and blatantly ignoring the nasty look the lady next to him gives; he’s grown immune to them really, since she’d been giving him the same look for the last hour and so. (Niall supposes he took a little too many toilet breaks - he has a weak bladder, okay!? - munched on his chips a little too loudly - he’s hungry and the food the plane offers is shitty - and aggressively wrote down how he felt about this whole thing in his trusted journal - not _diary_ , _journal_ \- muttering crude words under his breath, but hey, he’s the one with the miserable life here, nothing to get her panties in a twist over.)

After the rather boring routine of getting off the plane and anxiously searching for his luggage, he is dragging his feet, eyes scanning the mass of people for people he wasn’t even sure how looked. He reaches into his pocket and pulls out the photo he’s parents gave him of the Hathaways; his left eye twitches when he sees that the photo is _old_ because he surely doesn’t hope that Mr. and Mrs. Hathaway still looks like hippies in their 20s high on weed. God.

He looks up and sees a bald man with a tacky hawaai shirt waving energetically at him and Niall is just happy he doesn’t have to search long, he forces a smile on his lips and waves back. Baldy walks toward him and Niall politely sticks his hand out;

“Hello, nice to meet you-“The man walks right past him, Niall’s words die on his tongue and he turns around confused. “Hi, uncle Tim!” A girl around the 18 years with backpack twice her size says, hugging Baldy around his impressively round stomach.

Niall awkwardly lets his outstretched hand fall down to his side; well, that was embarrassing, he surely hopes no one saw that.

Where the fuck are those Hathaways?

+

He finds them eventually. They’re standing off to the side, holding up huge sings with his name scrawled on. There’s three of them; Mr. and Mrs. Hathaway and a boy. Niall sees them first so he decides to check them out from a distance, creeping behind a vending machine (he partly hopes he’ll see something that’ll be enough reason to turn around and hop on the next flight to back to Dublin).

David Hathaway is a tall thin man, an impressive mop of brown messy hair for his age, though Niall spots a few silver streaks, a small beard and energetic eyes; he is clad in plain jeans and t-shirt. 

Diana Hathaway is at least a head smaller than her husband, strawberry-blond hair sat up in a loose bun and a purple dress, excited smile on her red-painted lips, her eyes flickering around in search of Niall. Niall can’t help but thinks she’s just a little too overdressed for the occasion.

And then there’s the boy, their son doubtlessly. He looks like a middle-schooler and Niall very vaguely remembers him back from summer ’04, though the kid was like three or two back then and if Niall remembers correct, his name is Harry which suits him better now than ever, what with the mass of curls piled on top of his head; Niall idly wonders if he actually curls it. He is waving the sign from side to side, bouncing slightly on the balls of his feet.

Niall sighs, pinching the bridge of his nose, annoyed; they don’t look like evil people at all, if anything, they seem annoyingly imødekommende and kind-hearted. Niall takes a minute, staring longingly at the blue screen that shows the next flight to Dublin is boarding in a few minutes; God, he misses Jasmine already. He takes a deep inhale and puts a smile on his face; it isn’t the Hathaway’s fault, they’re actually saving him from a yet another culture shock so he supposes he owes them not to act like an ungrateful brat. He hitches his guitar suitcase a little higher up on his shoulder, grabs his rolling suitcase tighter and walks toward the Hathaways.

+

Niall sneaks up behind just for the hell of it and says with an over exaggerated jolly tone;

“HI!”  
They all three spin around at the same time with a rather creepy synchronization. Niall is nearly blown away by the magnitude of their smiles when they see him and he doesn’t get the chance of uttering another word before they are all over him. 

“Niall! Oh my, look at you, you’ve grown so much!” David Hathaway grins jovially, giving Niall a tight hug and ruffling up in his hair; Niall fights down the urge to straightens his hair with an annoyed expression. “So happy that you made it in one piece!”

“Welcome to London!” Diana Hathaway says and up close Niall can see she has big, blue eyes, subtly outlined with a black liner. She steps forward and kisses Niall wetly on both cheeks and Niall knows he’s probably wearing her lipstick on his cheeks now. “Look at you, a young handsome man and you’ve dyed your hair! Blondes have more fun, don’t they, love?” She says and laughs a bubbly contagious laugh. 

“Haha, I guess,” Niall says, subconsciously running a hand through his blond hair; so far, that saying has been a complete lie, because seriously, Niall hasn’t had any particular ‘fun’ since he began dying his hair back when he was 12. “Nice to meet you, Mr. and Mrs. Hathaway and thank you so much for letting me stay with you,” Niall says, bobbing his head slightly and smiling; 

“Oh, we are more than happy to have you and so are all the boys! they’re so excited to meet you!” Diana says, putting a warm hand on Niall’s shoulder. “Come on, Harry sweety, say hello to Niall,” Diana says and Niall looks toward the kid he’d forgotten existed for a second. He’s standing behind David with a shy smile, a dimple faintly denting his left cheek and aw, up close, he looks adorable; like a baby seal. 

“You remember, Niall, right?” Mr. Hathaway says, gently pushing Harry forward and Harry shakes his head, the mess of curls bouncing around his face. “Of course not, you were 3 year old when they visited,” Mr. Hathaway says with another loud, happy laugh and Niall has a feeling this man laughs a lot. Niall gives the kid a friendly smile and surprisingly, it’s enough to crack him out of his shy shell, because he returns Niall’s smile tenfold, two large dimples denting his cheeks and moves forward, hugging Niall around the neck.

Niall blinks a little surprised but return the hug nonetheless, the curls tickling his nose; Harry is a few inches shorter than himself. “Welcome to London, Niall,” Harry chirps and Niall discreetly sniffs Harry’s curls and he isn’t even surprised that they smell of unicorn dust and rainbows (not that he’s smelled either before, but he reckon they smell like this). “Thanks, Harry,” Niall says, patting the smaller boy’s back. 

Niall attempts to pull away, but Harry’s arms are still wrapped around his neck. Harry hugs him to the point where Niall considers it awkward and he glances at his parents who just smiling at them. Niall slowly counts to three in his head and when he’s done, Harry is still clinging to him like a leech, Niall gets eye-contact with Mrs. Hathaway and there must be something in his eyes that says _“get your kid off of me”_ , because she says with a small laugh; “Harry, honey, that’s enough.”

And finally, Harry releases Niall with slightly pink cheeks, Niall just smiles at him; cute kid, he just needs to learn a little about hugging etiquettes. He watches Diana move forward and pats Harry’s curly head; he has a feeling he’s a mommy’s boy.

“Well, then! Shall we get going!?” David Hathaway says with a grin. “Oh! let me get that for you!” Mr. Hathaway says and before Niall can protest, he takes his suitcase out of his hand. “You play guitar?” Mr. Hathaway asks interested noticing Niall’s guitar case.

“No, I’m just carrying it for fun,” Niall says with a straight face and when he realizes what he said, he nearly slaps himself right there. But David doesn’t seem bothered by Niall’s reply, because he laughs loud and claps Niall hard on the shoulder.

“You’re funny,” he chuckles.

+

The drive from the airport to the Hathaway residence takes about 2 hours, but feels like much more in Niall’s mind; the main reason being because the Hathaways won’t _shut up_. Mr. and Mrs. Hathaway and Harry are all like fucking waterfalls, laughing and chattering and asking too many question, and for some reason, Harry is practically glued to his side, looking at him with big, interested green eyes inquiring him about all the places Niall has been; Niall supposes he understands why Harry finds it so interesting since, as he says, he hasn’t been outside England before, but Niall wishes the kid new about personal space; he’s practically all up in his face.

“I like your accent,” Harry says with a dimply smile. “It sounds funny.”

Niall doesn’t know if he should take the last part as a compliment, but what the hell.

“Thanks, I like your accent too,” Niall says, even though he’s never really found the British English that much intriguing; he’s heard much more intriguing accents. That makes Harry blush and he bashfully lowers his gaze, fiddling with a loose thread of his shirt.

“Thanks,” Harry says meekly and Niall turns away and rolls his eyes

+

David Hathaway pulls into the driveway of the Hathaway residence; a fairly big home and Niall’s eyes immediately looks toward the three boys occupying the front lawn, all around the same ages as Niall. 

There’s one that catches Niall’s attention immediately, and Niall could list 500 reasons but he settles with four, one; he’s juggling a worn football two; a naked, toned skin with beads of sweat glistening in the sun, three; floppy brown hair and big, puppy eyes, four; a dazzling smile that makes Niall’s breath catch in his throat.

 _Liam_. holy, fuck, Liam has grown to be one gorgeous young man; gone is the short, chubby child with the serious face Niall remembers from Summer ’04 and in his place is this piece of art; puberty has done a fucking _marvelous_ job of this boy. Niall can’t look away.

Well, until Liam loses control of the ball and it flies across the air, knocking out a glass of lemonade from a boy kicked back on a lounge chair, clad in a tiny pair of shorts and huge, diva-like sunglasses. The glass falls to the grass, the content spilling and the boy rips the sunglasses from his eyes and flips his long, auburn bangs out of his eyes, glaring at Liam, who laughs out something that looks like an apology. The guy begins shouting something, moving his arms around in lively gestures and that’s, that’s Louis, if Niall remembers correctly. (Lou-eh, not _Lewis_ , that’s what Louis would knock, literally knock into Niall’s head with a spoon when Niall mispronounced his name back in ‘04 - he made Niall cry for mercy - and Louis had been mean to him for the rest of the visit, forcing Niall to eat sand from the sandpit, and no, Niall doesn’t hold a grudge, but he has a feeling Louis does).

Niall catches sight of the third boy, kneeled in front of a slick, black motorcycle, fiddling with it, a box of tools. He looks up when they drive in and looks directly at Niall and Niall gulps when he recognizes those evil golden-brown eyes; this is Zayn (and the only reason Niall even remembers the name is because Harry has been rambling about his brothers almost the whole ride from the airport). 

Niall’s view is suddenly blocked when Harry’s baby face presses into his window; and Niall blinks, realizing he’d been too occupied checking out the people he’d been spending the next, long three years with to notice Harry had descended the vehicle. Harry grins adorably to him, knocking a finger against the window. “Come on, get out,” He says. “I’ll introduce you to the others.”

David and Diana climb off the car as well, and Niall follows them out.

“Boys! Come say hi to Niall!” David Hathaway shouts, coming up and putting an arm around Niall; and Niall squirms a little when three pair of eyes land on him, or more particular Liam’s gorgeous brown eyes looks at him from across the lawn and when he shoots him that fantastic smile, Niall’s insides melt. (he panics a little inside, because _fuck_ , he didn’t think any of them would have this affect on him and they sort of don’t know that Niall likes boys just as much as he likes girls, nobody but Jasmine knows, God, Niall already misses that girl).

“Niall!” A booming voice says and Niall looks up at Louis who saunters up to him with a smirk too familiar; a smirk that bears no good, only evil. Louis is all flawless tanned skin and bright blue eyes; Niall doesn’t remember him to being anything near attractive. He stops up in front of him and levels him with a gaze. “Look at you,” he smiles. “You haven’t grown at all, you’re just as short as you were back in ’04, what happened?” Louis asks with mock concern and Niall’s face goes beet red.

“Louis,” Diana says in a quiet, warning tone. Liam comes up behind Louis, towering a couple of inches over him and smacks him behind across his head. “Hey!” Louis protests and scowls darkly at Liam. Liam ignores him and smiles at Niall, and Niall kind of, _totally_ gets lost in his eyes.

“Ignore Louis, that’s what we all do anyway,” Liam says with a good-natured smile and Louis rolls his eyes and crosses his arms. “Welcome, Niall, it’s been long, nice to see you again,” Liam says and Niall opens his mouth and he does this embarrassing thing he always does when he talks to someone he wants to impress; he talks in alien (or as Jasmine puts it; he has a brain fart). 

“akjfheufhu,” Niall says, which translates to; _thank you, Liam, nice to see you too_. Liam raises a perfect eyebrow with an amused glint in his eyes, Louis snorts loudly in the background, Harry peers confused up at Niall, like he’s trying to figure out if Niall is talking in a secretive language, and someone disguises a laugh with a cough and Niall looks to the person who has appeared to Liam’s right.

 

Zayn.

Zayn tilts his face a little to the side and looks at Niall with a smirk that is just as, if not more, evil as Louis’; one that used to scare the shit out of Niall back when he was 6 - and maybe it’s still scaring him - and Zayn would do anything to make him cry back then (from stealing his food, hiding his shoes, flushing his aqua man figure in the toilet, yeah, the memories floods back and Niall reconsiders his choice). Though Zayn has grown out from being a little, bullying devil with messy hair and missing teeth and snotty noise, to become something caved by the Greek Gods; damn, why hasn’t the years been as good to Niall as it has to those boys? 

“Hi, Niall,” Zayn says with a sweet smile, but Niall can’t help but pick up on the teasing tone. “How was your flight?”

“It was alright,” Niall says curtly, forcing a smile through and doing anything in his might not to look directly into Liam’s eyes or for that matter on his toned chest that’s within Niall’s reach; all he has to do is reach out and…Niall crosses his arms, in fear he’ll find his hands feeling up Liam’s chest without his conscious permission.

“Oh you know what, boys, Niall here plays guitar!” David says along with the ever-present laugh. “Now we have someone to play us old songs around the fire when we have our annual camping trips!”

All the boys groan in unison at that.

“Oh, come on! The camping trip is the _best_ time of the year!” David says and punches Louis’ shoulder lightly. Louis rolls his eyes. “I’d rather stick my genitals in a bee’s nest than go on any more of those,” he says under his breath, David is already blabbering about something else, so he doesn’t hear, but Harry does and he lets out a boyish snicker, sidling up next to Louis and poking him in his naked ribs.

“You wouldn’t do that, Lou,” he says and Louis affectionately ruffles up in his curls, hugging him to his side and whispering something in his ear that makes Harry burst out laughing.

“Zayn and Liam, go grab Niall’s bag and Louis and Harry, go show Niall his new room, and me and David will set the table, and we’ll all have a nice early dinner!” Diana says, clapping her hands together.

“Your room is right next to mine, Niall!” Harry says and skips up to him, surprising Niall when he slips his hand in his and tugs him along. Louis follows them closely behind, fighting down a grin and Niall’s stomach churns with a bad feeling.

Niall’s room is on the second floor and as they reach the door, Niall doesn’t take notice of the way Louis rips Harry from his side, but it does raise suspicion when Louis makes a grand gesture toward the door.

“After you, Horan,” he says with a wide smile. Niall eyes Louis, glancing at the slightly cracked open door and he wonders what shit Louis is pulling this time. Niall slowly walks up to the door, grab the door-knob with clammy fingers and slowly pushes it open while cautiously peeking his head inside. He hears Harry’s gasp first, then ice-cold water is dumped on top of his head along with a plastic bucket and Niall’s heart jumps to his throat, a very girly squeak escaping his lips.

The shock is so sudden that Niall has no control of his bladder and to his utter mortification, he feels the warm wetness, he literally _pees_ himself, right there, right in front of Louis and Harry. 

This is not happening. This is not happening. _This is happening_. Niall is standing and shaking like a leaf, clothes are clinging to his body, ice-cold water dripping from him; the pool of water mixing with something much more embarrassing.

Niall slowly turns around, Harry looks absolutely shocked, Louis looks down before bursting into deafening laughter.

“Oh my God, you actually _peed_ yourself, _just like last time_ ,” Louis wheezes, bending over and clutching his stomach.

 

“What’s going on?”

Liam and Zayn appear; surveying the scene and Niall now personally knows the meaning of ‘dying on the inside’.

“Welcome to the family, Niall,” Louis chokes out through uncontrolled chortles. 

Niall is taking the next plane to Japan, hell, be it fucking Jupiter, he’s getting the hell out of here.


	2. Chapter 2

Chapter 2

 

Niall doesn’t condone violence, but Louis needs to die in the most horrible way possible; alright, maybe not die, _die_ , but you know, just _suffer_ for being such a huge dick.

It’s one thing to humiliate him like that, but an even worse crime to humiliate him in front of _Liam_ , because fuck, Niall kind of fancies the guy and the first time he talks to him, he gets possessed by an alien and then Liam sees him standing in a puddle of his own smelly pee; talk about worst first impressions. Liam is never going to take him serious.

And fuck Zayn, if he thinks Niall didn’t see the way he’d been fighting down a laugh the whole time - while Niall had been trying very hard not to cry - the shitface thinks wrong; Niall saw and Niall hates him too (plus, he has a strong suspicion Zayn had known what marvelous welcome Louis had planned for him). Louis and Zayn might have turned into two slightly good-looking, alright, _ridiculously hot_ guys, but their personalities are just as rotten as back in ’04; they’re still sadistic monsters, who love to see Niall near tears.

Niall dubs them ‘The double Cs’ - _couple of cunts_ \- in his journal when he later the same night aggressively writes down all the different ways he’d like to see them suffer in; it helps him take some steam off, or else, he’s afraid he’ll murder Louis in his sleep.

Diana and David were mortified when Harry shouted for them to come over and see what Louis had done - though Niall knows the kid meant well, there was no need to gather more people to see his humiliation - and Louis had gotten a serious scolding; from what Niall knows, the twat is grounded for the next months, no electronics and straight home from school, Niall admits he smirked satisfied when he heard them cut off his monthly allowance, highly satisfied when he heard Louis cry out in indignation and throw quite the tantrum considering the boy is on verge of being 19: he’s obviously more immature than little Harry.

Diana and David had of course come to Niall’s room and profusely apologized for their son’s behavior; “I don’t know what has gotten into him,” Diana had said, disappointed. “He won’t treat you like that ever again, Niall! I promise,” David had told him. Niall wanted to tell them that it wasn’t their fault they’d adopted a devil child, but figured it wasn’t the best thing to say. They’d asked him, _pleaded_ with him not to let Louis scare him away when Niall told them he was leaving. 

Niall is pretty set on leaving, since he had nothing to stay for, his chances with Liam was ruined and Louis was most probably planning something even worse for him, and that’s when Liam comes to him room in all his glory.

Niall has just finished spilling his bottled up anger onto paper and is hiding the journal under his mattress when there’s a quiet knock on the door. Niall sits up and stares at the door warily.

“Come in,” he calls and when he sees Liam in a flimsy tank top, his brain short-circuits and he ends up staring at Liam like a retard. 

“Hey,” Liam says in a hushed voice, stepping inside and closing the door behind him; he gives Niall a cautious smile, and Niall continues to stare; he’s afraid he might be drooling, literally. “Can I come in?” 

Niall nods a little too eagerly, not trusting his voice and Liam’s smile widens. He steps inside and Niall makes room for him on his bed. Niall fidgets a little nervously, fingers touching his own hair and face; he hopes he doesn’t have any leftover food from the dinner - Niall gives it to Diana Hathaway, she cooks wonderful food - on his face, he kind of have a habit of that. He immediately stops fidgeting when Liam looks at him and returns his warm smile with one that can only be described as foolish.

“How are you holding up?” Liam says and his eyes shine with sympathy; Niall’s heart does this weird flip and Niall wants to cuddle up to Liam, but that might be crossing an invisible line, Niall’s not sure. 

“Okay,” Niall manages to formulate and maybe it isn’t that good of a reply, but he mentally pats himself on the shoulder nonetheless; at least his alter-ego, aka alien-boy, didn’t take over. 

“Good,” Liam smiles; he has a pretty smile, his eyes crinkle up at the corners. “The only way to deal with Louis is to make it clear that you won’t put up with his bullshit,” Liam’s eyes widens slightly then and he looks sheepish; “Pardon my language,” he says then and Niall nearly coos; he’s too cute. Niall has always cursed left and right - his parents having given up on him, really - and it’s first then that he considers watching his language around this house. “Louis isn’t as mean as he seems, he just needs to get used to you, that’s all,” Liam continues to say and Niall isn’t as much listening to his words as he is staring at his mouth moving; his mouth seems very pink, Niall can’t look away. “I’m really sorry about earlier today, I wish I knew what he’d been up to, then I wouldn’t have let him do that…Niall, are you listening?”

Niall’s rips his eyes from Liam’s lips and looks into Liam’s eyes that dance with amusement. Niall thinks Liam asked him a question, but he isn’t quite sure. 

_Shit, just smile and nod. That always works_ Niall thinks and does just that, trying to keep his eyes on Liam’s. Liam raises a brow and studies him, a lop-sided smile forming on his lips. Liam shifts a little and the flimsy tank-top falls a little at the collar, flashing a pink nipple and Niall chokes on thin air.

“You alright?” Liam asks, genuinely concerned expression on his face. Niall face burns and he tries not to look at Liam’s naked nipple and he smiles nervously. Niall nods frantically.

“I-I’m-uhhh,” Niall can't seem to find the right words for the life of him and Liam just looks confused. He wants to crawl under the bed in embarassment.

Liam suddenly peers curiously into his eyes and Niall just sits there, red-faced and _sweating_ ; oh god, he’s sweating and maybe it’s just his imagination, but he can _feel_ the beads of sweat forming on his forehead. He’ll smell like a little piggy in no time and Liam is going to be so disgusted, he’s never going to talk to him again. Who wants to talk to a piggy-smelling, alien-talking, peeing-his-pants-

“You have really pretty eyes.”

-short, fake blonde- _wait, what_. Did Liam just say that?

Niall stares into Liam’s eyes and Liam looks back with a sweet smile; is Liam flirting with him? Niall has never been flirted with, so he doesn’t know what to consider flirting, and he’s never gotten a compliment from others - safe his parents and Jasmine - and wow, Liam thinks his eyes are pretty.

_alright, Niall, don’t ruin this, tell him his eyes are pretty, or his smile is beautiful or his nose is cute or his_

“I like your face.”

Niall deserves a high-five…in the face…with a chair, because he did _not_ just say that; what fucking _primitive_ moron speaks like that? Liam is staring at him with a blank face and Niall holds his breath, waiting for Liam to tell him what freaking weirdo he is. He has completely ruined any chance for Liam to ever find him attractive, that’s for sure, and Niall had just begun fantasizing about his lips; _Goddamn it_.

Niall is surprised when Liam laughs; loud and unapologetically. Niall just sits back, slightly shocked as Liam doubles over laughing and Niall isn’t sure if he’s laughing at him; even if he is, Niall isn’t even mad. Liam has a fantastic laugh that sends unfamiliar thrills all through Niall body and Niall welcomes the feeling, basking in the sound and uses the opportunity to fully ogle Liam’s body, the way his muscles stretch under his skin and his eyes lingers on Liam’s dark, chest hair. Niall wonders what Liam smells like; he bets he smells like sex and man and maybe strawberry.

Liam’s laughter finally dies down to soft chuckles and he looks at Niall, smiling. “God, Niall, you’re so cute,” he says and reaches over ruffling Niall’s hair, and Niall bites down the pleased sound on his tongue. Then he realizes that Liam called him _cute_ which goes hand in hands with _adorable_ ; Niall isn’t sure that’s what he was going for; he’d like Liam to think he’s _hot_ , or even _sexy_. (Alright, Niall knows he might not be any of those, but for Liam, he’d be anything; he’d settle for cute now).

Niall is set on changing Liam’s view on him, at least a little, tonight, but before he can open his mouth, the doors flies open and Harry bounds inside wearing a ridiculous pajama with small airplanes everywhere; he looks adorkable - though Niall resents him a little for ruining his ‘alone-time’ with Liam.

“Mama is making sandwiches! She says come down and get some!” Harry says and throws himself onto the bed, landing half-across Liam’s lap and head falling into Niall’s lap. He squirms and turns until he’s in a comfortable position and looks at them with a grin. 

“Alright, little man,” Liam says, flickering Harry’s nose playfully, making the younger boy giggle. Niall feels a little reluctant about going downstairs, he doesn’t feel like looking at Louis’ face or for that matters Zayn’s, and Harry notices, he says;

“Don’t worry about Lou being mean, Niall,” Harry says, looking up at him with his big doe-eyes. “He’s not allowed to leave his room.”

“Is that so?” Niall says, trying not to appear too happy and he gives into his fingers itching curiosity and cautiously plays with one of Harry’s curls; he isn’t even surprised that they’re ridiculously soft; Niall will have to find out what shampoo he uses. Harry looks absolutely pleased and he pushes his head closer to Niall’s hand, mewling like a newborn kitten. Niall chuckles and runs his fingers through Harry’s hair, massaging his scalp gently, Harry practically melts into him and Liam shakes his head with a fond smile. 

“Now, he won’t let you stop,” Liam stage-whispers to Niall, Harry of course hears and indignantly pinches Liam’s side. 

“Not true!”

“Come on, let’s go, I’m starving,” Liam says and gently brushes Harry’s legs off of him and gets to his feet. Harry scrambles to his feet with speeding light and before Liam can take another step, Harry jumps onto his back with a boyish laugh, nearly knocking them both to the ground. “Carry me, Li!” He shouts, going koala on the older boy and Liam laughs, hooking his arms under Harry’s knees.

Niall watches them and feels an itching burn inside of him; he realizes that he’s jealous of a thirteen year old kid.

Yeah, he needs help.

+

 _DJJasmine-09_ OMG. WHAT. YOU PEED YOURSELF. I’M SORRY FOR LAUGHING. BUT I AM. SHIT. I THINK I PEED MYSELF A LITTLE. TALK ABOUT KARMA.

 _Nail-file_ fuck you and stop abusing the caps lock. Louis is a dick. srsly idk what his problme is.

 _DJJasmine-09_ : I DON’T KNOW HE SOUNDS FUNNY. AND EVIL. BUT FUNNY. IS HE HOT   
And *problem

 _Nail-file_ : you traitor i hate you. try peeing yourself in front of MATTY you tears would drown the whole fuckign planet. scratch that the whole fucking universe

 _DJJasmine-09_ : SHUT UP YOU LITTLE CUNT IT’S NOT LIKE YOU PEED IN FRONT OF SOMEONE WHO MATTERS

 _Nail-file_ : ….

 _DJJasmine-09_ : OMFG NO ARE U SERIOUS WHO IS HE AND YOU PEED IN FRONT OF HIM. IT’S BETTER THAN I THOUGHT. PLEASE. I NEED PICTURES. A NAME. TALK TO ME

 _Nail-file_ : OF COURSE HE’S HOT. HE’S HOTTER THAN HOT. HE’S SJSDKHKJFD. AND YOU KNOW, I CANT TALK PROPERLY TO HIM. I’M HOPELESS. HE SAID I HAD PRETTY EYES, I THINK HE WAS FLIRTING RIGHT? RIGHT. AND THE BEST PART IS MY REPLY. GUESS WHAT I REPLIED  
^that deserved capslock, I was screaming the words in my mind. lol.

 _DJJasmine-09_ : KLSAJLKFDJDLS, I WANT A PICTURE YOU LITTLE SHIT. WHAT. HE WANTS THE D. WHAT DID YOU SAY. DON’T TELL ME YOU BRAIN-FARTED YOU DID DIDN’T YOU

 _Nail-file_ : I said "I like your face". 

_DJJasmine-09_ : OMG

 _Nail-file_ ; he laughed so hard, I thought he’d pee himself. you know, I wouldn’t mind his pee on my bed, I’d roll around in it. it’d be like he put his mark on me. y’know, like a dog.  
Shit, did I just write that.

 _DJJasmine-09_ : BWAHAHAHA. I’M LAUGHING SO HARD RIGHT NOW. YOU’RE RIGHT, YOU’RE HOPELESS. OMG. I CAN HEAR MY MOM COMING. IT’S LATE AND I SHOULD SLEEP. SHE’S GOING TO KILL ME. BYYYYYe. LOVE YOUR PRETTY ASS XXXXXX

 _Nail-file_ : love you too  
And miss you. :’(

+

Niall sighs and closes his macbook, putting it on the small nightstand next to his bed. He looks around his room; it’s plain really, beige walls, mint-green curtains, a drawer and a closet; Diana was saying something about going on a trip to the mall tomorrow so they could get him whatever else he needed for his room. 

Niall glances at his suitcase, lying up against the wall, he has yet to unpack it. He glances at the ridiculous cat-clock Harry gave him; it shows it’s close to midnight and the whole house is as quiet as the grave. Niall can’t sleep; he’s never really had problem sleeping in unfamiliar places, he doesn’t want to admit it, but he thinks it has something to do with the absence of his parents. He’s never been anywhere without them, now that he thinks about it and being an only child, his mother didn’t even trust him with babysitters, she’d drag him along everywhere; consequently, she’d become ‘that person’; that person that always had their child attached to their hip. Niall can’t comprehend how she could leave him now behind without a second thought.

Niall decides there’s no point in delaying the inevitable, he might as well begin packing out. He is walking toward his suitcase when a movement outside the window catches his eyes and his heart leaps to his throat.

Niall sidles up to the window and peers out, expecting a masked criminal; there is someone creeping across the front lawn of the Hathaway residence and Niall holds his breath, fingers growing clammy as he wonders what he should do, if he should call the police or go alert Diana ad David. Niall squints, trying to catch the person’s face, but it’s too dark. Until the person walks under one of the street lamps and the soft glow falls over half his face; it’s only for a second, before the figure is rushing down the street, but Niall sees.

It’s Louis. 

He’s sneaking out in the middle of the night, going against his parents. Niall hates to admit that he’s intrigued, and he follows Louis with his eyes as far as he can. Louis is wearing a pink button-down, a black blazer thrown over and tight dark jeans folded up at the ankles and a pair of vans. He’s clearly dressed for an occasion; a party? Niall might not have been to a party, but he is sure nobody grooms so much for a wild night out; the guy even has his hair gelled up in a messy, but hot hairdo. Louis comes to a corner and just as Niall thinks he’ll take a turn and disappear, an expensive, silver Bentley pulls up next to where Louis is standing and Niall’s heartbeat increases. He gapes wide-eyed as the passenger seat opens and Louis quickly climbs inside. And as sudden as the car appeared, it disappears.

Niall is left to stare, thousand of thoughts running through his mind, the most prominent being; _what the fuck just happened_? It isn’t as much Louis sneaking out this time of the night that shocks Niall the most, it’s that _car_ ; a very expensive car. Niall doesn’t know the exact prize, but it’s around the hundred thousand. 

Holy Shit 

There’s no way in freaking hell that, that car belonged to one of Louis’ friend, except if Louis has really rich friends and for all Niall knows he might have. But then again, why would Louis sneak out to meet with this filthy rich friend? There’s someone fishy about this and Niall takes a minute to consider if he even cares; he is curious, that’s all.

 

And Niall has always been a _very_ curious person; he wants to know what Louis is sneaking around doing. (and possibly use it for future blackmail, though Niall isn’t much of a blackmailer, Louis has seriously pissed him off and as Liam said; he needs to know Niall isn’t going to put up with his bullshit).

+

The next morning, Niall is awakened by something bouncing up and down on his bed. “Whaaat, go away,” Niall whines half-asleep, turning and covering his face with his blanket. The bouncing doesn’t stop and soon there’s a familiar giggle.

“Get uppppp,” Harry sings. “Get up, sunshine.” Niall moans painfully when Harry lands on top of him and shit, the kid is fucking heavy. 

“Harry,” Niall growls, flipping the covers aside and glaring at Harry who is grinning at him like a loon. Niall’s frown slips away, because “awww, you look so fluffy!” Niall says in an exaggerated cooing voice and can’t help but pull in one of Harry’s curls. “I’m a fluff ball,” Harry replies with a goofy smile. Niall chuckles, rubbing the sleep out of his voice. “I’d normally kill anyone who wakes me up, but you’re too adorable, fluffy Harry,” Niall grins. “It rhymes.” 

Suddenly an even fluffier creature hops onto the bed, giving Niall a mini heart-attack; it’s a white cat with the grumpiest expression Niall has ever seen on a cat. It rubs itself against Harry with a throaty purr. Harry smiles and lifts it up in his lap, or more like Niall’s lap since the kid is still sitting on top of him.

“Niall meet Catnip Everdeen,” Harry says, lifting the cat and shoving it into Niall’s face. Niall ends up having an awkward staring contest with the cat, and Niall swears, it’s glaring at him; or maybe that’s just how its face is.

“Catnip Everdeen?” Niall says, processing Harry’s words. “As in Katniss Everdeen from District 12?”

Harry lowers the cat, which lazily rolls - literally _rolls_ \- off the bed, and gives Niall a huge, dimply smile.

“You’ve watched the Hunger Games?” Harry asks, excitedly, bouncing a little on Niall’s lap, and Niall chokes on thin air. His face goes red faster than one can think _”holy crap”_. 

“Harry! Stop moving!” Niall cries out and grabs the smaller boy’s shoulders, stopping his movement. Harry frowns, giving an adorably confused expression. “What’s wrong?” He asks.

Niall bites his lip and closes his eyes trying to get hold of the situation before it turns more awkward than it is. The problem is that, well, Niall hadn’t noticed he woke up with a small problem _between his legs_ until Harry had so innocently bounced right on top of it, and _shit_ , it’s more alive than ever and Harry is sitting right on top of it and the little idiot doesn’t even notice.

Talk about awkward mornings.

“Niall?” Harry shifts, resulting in his little bum rubbing against the bulge under the thin covers and Niall wonders how many times he can die on the inside before he actually dies, _dies_. “Don’t move,” Niall croaks dry-mouthed and he can feel himself beginning to sweat. “Why?” Harry says, shifting again and the friction is there and Niall swears, he’s not a bad person, but _fuck_ , he can’t hold it back; he lets out a suppressed moan. Harry still and Niall looks at him panicky. Harry looks confused.

“Do you have something under the covers?” Harry asks innocently, his big green eyes blinking at Niall in that adorable manner; a thought crosses Niall’s mind and he knows there’s a special place in hell for people like him. “There’s something poking my bum.”

Harry apparently gives up on getting an answer out of Niall, because he lifts his ass and is about to take a look himself, but Niall quickly stops him. “Bathroom!” Niall shouts, startling both Harry and the cat that had been peacefully licking it’s paw, he scrambles off the bed, making sure to cover his crotch area and runs outside.

 

Niall’s miserable morning only gets worse when he knocks into someone and they both unceremoniously crash to the floor. 

“What the fuck,” someone groans beneath him and Niall gulps. He slowly lifts his face and looks directly at Zayn’s pretty boy face; wow, Zayn looks best in the morning, all messy and roughed from sleep and _shirtless_. (Niall kind of - completely - forgets that his sitting on top of Zayn with very obvious morning wood as he gets lost tracing Zayn’s chest tattoos with his eyes). Zayn stares blankly up at him and Niall stares back. This drags on for some few awkward seconds before Zayn pointedly looks at the tent in Niall’s boxers.

“I always thought you had a small dick,” he says it nonchalantly, like he’s commenting on the fucking weather and Niall’s face gives off more heat than the summer sun. “Oh and nice boxers, Spongebob is my favorite cartoon,” Zayn adds as an afterthought in that same casual tone and smiles up at Niall. “You can get off now, or if you ask nicely, I’ll blow you.” the last part is said with such a filthy look that Niall’s dick twitches interested under the thin layer of his underwear, Zayn notices and smirks smugly. Niall dies a little more on the inside.

He scrambles off of Zayn and manages to get into the bathroom without another embarrassing or awkward encounter. Once he enters the bathroom, he gags. “Shit,” he mutters; the bathroom is absolutely _filthy_. There’s shit everywhere; dirty towels, clothes, hair and fuck, is that _pubic_ hair? Niall feels sick; what animals are living in this house? Do these boys know nothing about cleaning? He idly wonders if David and Diana will let him share their bathroom instead, he quickly shakes the thought off.

Niall is peacefully taking a shower when there’s an aggressive pounding on the door. “Horan! Hurry up! I need to take a piss!” Louis’ familiar voice shouts from the other end; well, looks like someone made it back home and Niall wonders what ungodly hours of the morning Louis sneaked back into the house.

“Louis! Why are you pounding on the doors? Come use the bathroom downstairs.” Niall vaguely hears Diana shout from somewhere downstairs; presumably the kitchen. “Where are you manners?”

Niall is most probably just imagining it, but he feels Louis glaring at him through the door. He sighs and goes about his business; he won’t let Louis get to him more than he already has.

 

+

Downstairs in the kitchen, Zayn has fallen asleep and is drooling on the dinner table while Louis is filling out the tattoo on Zayn’s arm with colorful pens, Harry is finding the whole thing hilarious and is trying to suppresses his snickers, Diana is rolling her eyes at her boys’ antics while flipping pancakes at the stove and David Hathaway is towering at the end of the table with ugly reading glasses, biting the back of a pencil, a newspaper spread in front of him as he tries to crack a word puzzle. 

Niall lingers awkwardly in the doorway, feeling very much like an intruder. Of course, he notices the absence of Liam and wonders where said boy is. He has barely thought the thought to an end before there’s steps behind him and heavy breathing.

“Good morning, Niall.” Niall spins around and comes face to face Liam who is bright-eyed and looks more fresh and awake than anyone else in this house; Niall’s eyes automatically gives Liam a once-over, he is wearing a tight-fitting tank top and loose jogging pants; he’d been out running, no doubt, how perfect can a person be?

“Good morning,” Niall replies and 10 points for him; he actually managed a full sentence. Liam smiles at him and Niall melts a little. Liam ruffles up in his hair and walks into the kitchen. “Mmm, pancakes,” Liam says and breaks a piece of one, putting it in his mouth before kissing Diana on the cheek. “Good morning, dear,” Diana says before wrinkling her nose. “Go take a shower, you reek of sweat.” Liam laughs and walks out again, ruffling Harry’s hair on the way and smirking at the face Louis is drawing on Zayn’s arm. He passes Niall and flashes him another wonderful smile before disappearing up the stairs. Niall stares dreamingly after him.

“Niall! Dear, what are you doing standing there, you must be hungry, come in,” Diana says, first then noticing him and Niall looks toward her and smiles. 

“Yeah, he’s hungry, but for something else,” Louis mutters under his breath and Niall’s face goes red; thankfully, Diana doesn’t hear, but Harry does. “What else?” Harry asks curiously. Louis smirks evilly at Niall. “You’re better off not knowing,” Louis says to the younger boy. Harry frowns and looks toward Niall with pursed lips. 

“Niall,” David booms, looking up from the word puzzle and grinning widely at Niall. He pats the empty seat next to him. “Come take a seat, don’t just stand there.” Niall opts for ignoring Louis and walks over, flopping down next to David. “Are you good at word puzzle, I just can’t crack this one,” David says and Niall looks over, and he ends up playing it with David while Diana begins to deal out the breakfast. She smacks Zayn lightly behind his face and he stirs awake, looking like a confused puppy.

(The breakfast goes better than the awful morning, especially when Liam comes back all damp hair and in a batman t-shirt, Niall tries not to drool over him at the dinner table, and he succeeds; for the most part. Niall just sits back and observes the Hathaways interact, notices the way Louis shares his food with Harry - who has an amazing appetite for a 13-year old - the way Zayn notices the ugly drawings on his arms and pulls in Louis’ ear as retaliation, the playful banter between the brothers and the parents and he can’t help but feel… _envious_ ; he has always wanted a sibling, one of few wishes his parents never granted him).

+

Niall spends most part of the day shopping in the mall with Diana and Harry; apparently, Harry is that kind of kid who follows his mother everywhere. (not that Niall recognizes a younger him in Harry or anything).

The trip goes relatively well, safe the part where Diana drags him and Harry from shoe shop to shoe shop, until Niall feels like he might puke if he sees another pair of high heels. Niall buys a desk, a new pair of shoes and new backpack. He’s quite happy with himself until Diana announces that they’re going to pick up his taylor-suited school uniform. (The fact that Diana already had his measures and has already ordered his uniform confirms the nagging suspicion that his parents had been planning this for weeks; he’ll have to have a serious talk with them as soon as they called from Okinawa.)

The rest of the day goes with Niall re-arranging the room, covering every inch of the wall with band posters, filling the drawers and closet with his clothes and just making the room _his own_ ; his constant company becomes Harry who just sits there with his adorable smile and his running mouth; the kid loves to talk, Niall isn’t complaining. He doesn’t see much to the others, according to Harry, Liam is out with friends, Louis is still restricted to the four walls of his room and Zayn is in the basement where he is painting naked people.

Niall stops up what he’s doing and turns to stare at Harry who’s lying on an odd ankle on the bed. “Painting naked people?” Niall repeats incredulously. Harry nods, distracted by fiddling with Niall’s guitar. “He likes painting them, mama says he’s expressing himself, Zaynie calls it art, Lou calls it pornography,” Harry rambles and looks up at Niall, laughing. “You can go down and see, he has his own painting room in the basement, right next to the entertainment room. you haven’t seen the basement yet, right? It’s pretty cool; we should play a game when you’re done; do you prefer play station or Xbox?”

“Naked people,” Niall repeats distracted and he admits it; he’s curious, though he doesn’t know what to think. He shakes his head and haphazardly throws a handful of boxers in the bottom drawer; wondering how much in detail Zayn’s paints and if his paintings are any good. _Naked people_ , damn, Niall wants to see.

+

The basement _is_ pretty cool; there’s a huge flat screen, apparently every console that was ever made, an array of different games stacked in the cabinet under the flat screen, a foosball table, worn but comfortable looking couches; Niall likes this place, it’s nice and cozy. 

“Do you want to play?” Harry asks, bounding up to the foosball table and searches for the ball. Niall wants to, but he’s much more interested in finding Zayn’s naked paintings; he’s just curious, okay. “Where’s Zayn’s painting room?” Niall asks and Harry points him towards a narrow corridor. “Down there, come I’ll show you.”

Harry leads him up to a door with Zayn’s name splashed across it in creative colors. Harry knocks on the door and grabs the knob without waiting for reply, but when he turns it, it turns out locked. Harry frowns confused. “Zaaaaaaaaaaaayn?” He shouts and Niall cringes a little. “Zaaaaayn, open!” Harry knock harder on the door but there’s no reply.

“Maybe he’s not there,” Harry says with a shrug. “I think he left.”

Niall tries not to look as disappointed as he feels; he’ll get a look sooner or later.

“Let’s go outside,” Niall says then. “We can play _real_ footie, whattcha say curly? One on one?” He ruffles up in Harry’s hair and Harry nods with a grin. “Yes!”

+

“Niall.” Niall nearly faints when Liam grabs his wrist and pulls him to him later that day when he finally returns; Niall missed his face. Liam looks around with a conspiratorial look, but really, it’s only them standing in the hall; Niall’s heartbeat races as he wonders what Liam is doing. “Come,” Liam says and without a word, he drags Niall into his room; Niall happily goes along.

Liam’s room smells nice and is clean and organized; one more reason to love him. Liam closes the door behind them and Niall’s heart does a flip as his mind goes over all the possible, _desired_ reasons Liam is being all secretive. Maybe he’s going to snog him silly, God, Niall hopes Liam is going to kiss him.

(Niall has never been kissed before and the thought of Liam being his first kiss makes him dizzy)

“Hey,” Liam says, smiles with a flash of teeth and Niall’s throat goes dry. “We’re going out tonight, it’s a last party before school starts kind of thing. Nothing big, just a small get-together, maybe there’ll be a bonfire,” Liam says and Niall simultaneously wishes he’d step closer and step away; Niall can smell his aftershave and it is doing things to him. “A lot of people from school is going to be there, I thought it’d be good for you, you know, so you could meet some people before beginning the new school,” Liam says and Niall has to try hard to concentrate on the actual words coming out of his wonderful mouth other than the way it moves. 

It registers in Niall’s mind that Liam is inviting him and he grins.

“Cool,” he says; he only trusts himself with one syllable words around Liam. Liam grins. “There’s a catch though,” Liam says and looks a little nervous. Niall blinks confused. “We’re going to sneak out since it’s going to get pretty late,” Liam says, studying Niall. “If you aren’t comfortable with it, then it’s cool, I’ll just introduce you when we start school.”

Niall has never tried sneaking out, never had a reason to really - like climbing into suspicious vehicles like Louis - and Niall admits it; he wants to know what it’s like, wants to feel the thrill. Besides, Liam wants him to go and Niall wants to be everywhere Liam is, so yeah.

“No problem,” he says. “I want to go.”

Liam grins.

“Cool, just come to my room around 12ish, yeah?” Liam says and his thumb rubs a quick circle into Niall’s wrist. The simple touch makes Niall’s brain melt down and he is possessed by alien-boy. “ungho,” he replies, but Liam just smiles.

“I take that as yes,” he says with a slight chuckle, ruffling up in Niall’s hair.

+

Apparently when Liam said “we” he didn’t just mean himself and Niall, he meant Zayn and Louis as well; and Louis isn’t exactly willing to take him with them.

They’re all standing in Liam’s room and the clock on Liam’s nightstand shows it’s 12:05 in big red letters.

“What the fuck, Liam,” Louis says, eyeing Niall with annoyance. “He’s not old enough. He can’t come.”

“I’m sixteen,” Niall replies, voice clipped. Louis rolls his eyes. “There’s only going to be seniors at this place. Do you _want_ to be the only toddler there?”

“But, Zayn isn’t a senior,” Niall says, glancing at the boy who is looking out of the window, looking bored and impatient.

“Zayn is cool, you’re not,” Louis replies and Niall frowns. “Go back to bed brat, we’re not dragging you along.”

“Louis,” Liam says, voice warning and glares lightly at Louis. “You’re the one grounded, be happy you’re even coming. I invited Niall so he’s coming.” Liam gives Niall an assuring smile and Niall smiles back gratefully.

“Can we just leave, already?” Zayn asks, checking his hair for the 100th time in the last 5 minutes; it’s perfectly styled in a messy, shaggy hairdo and with the tight ripped jeans, worn denim vest, combat boots and fingerless gloves, he looks, _hot_ ; Niall admits that, but…Niall looks at Liam; Liam looks _perfect_ in a checkered shirt and chinos with the adorable floppy hair. Louis isn’t as groomed as last night, looks more comfortable in an unbuttoned black shirt, white tank top and red pants; Niall doesn’t know how a guy can look that good in red pants. Oh well.

Niall looks down at himself, he’s clad in a simple tee and jeans; he realizes he should maybe have done something more about himself since he’s going to hang with the school’s seniors; he, a lowly sophomore, gulp, he begins to feel nervous; seniors had seemed so cool and unapproachable last year and now he’s joining their secret party. What if they don’t like him? What if they make fun of him? What if he embarrasses Liam? Shit.

“Why not bring Harry while we’re at it,” Louis grumbles, he looks at Niall; “When we get there, we don’t know each other, got that?”

“ _Louis_ ,” Liam says, eyes narrowed just the slightest. “Stop being an ass, he’s a guest, show some respect. Christ.”

Zayn opens the window and looks toward them.

“Let it go, Lou, blondie is coming, end of story, _let’s go_ ,” Zayn says and without further ado, he opens the window and climbs out. Niall stares; they’re on the second floor, where the hell did Zayn go? He spots him then, balancing on the branch of the huge tree just outside Liam’s window. Niall gulps. 

“Whatever,” Louis mutters under his breath and follows Zayn out, jumping onto the tree and climbing down with practiced ease. Liam looks at him.

“Ready?”

Nope. Not at all, but Niall nods nevertheless.

He has a strong feeling tonight is going to end in a disaster.


	3. Chapter 3

Chapter 3

 

Niall never thought he’d be _that_ person, you know, that person at parties that stands awkwardly in the dark corners all by his lonesome and observes the going-ons like he doesn’t quite understand what he’s doing there.

But look at that, he actually is and it sucks.

He’s also a little (a lot) terrified, because everyone here seems so much older than him and not just in the physical sense. When Liam said “nothing big, just a little-get-together”, Niall had actually imagined a small group of people just hanging and having a good time; not a bloody house party with deafening music and loads of booze and worse, _a lot of people_.

Niall lost sight of the other boys as soon as they arrived at this house party, Louis had made it pretty clear he didn’t want to be associated with Niall, Zayn had mysteriously disappeared and Liam had been dragged away by a group of his friends; they all forgot about Niall, and Niall kind of (really) resents them for that.

Suddenly, a screeching girl with too much cleavage showing runs by Niall as she’s pursued by some drunken idiot. Niall yelps loudly, bringing his foot up and ends up hopping around awkwardly.

He curses under his breath and looks around for the others, or more precisely, Liam. He’s the one who invited Niall out and he should not ditch him as soon as they arrive. Niall takes a deep breath and plunges into the party. He shoulders past the partying kids, eyes seeking Liam and he ends up in the kitchen. There he finds Louis with a group of other guys, in the middle of playing beer pong, and Niall ends up standing awkwardly in the back, watching. Louis notices him almost immediately and he frowns, making a shooing motion. Niall’s eyes narrows and he impulsively flips Louis the bird, fully enjoying his flabbergasted expression before leaving.

He walks into the living room where all the furniture has been pushed aside to make a dance floor; Niall watches the kids writhing to the music and quite honestly, they all look stupid. That’s when he catches sight of Liam and what he sees, makes him flare with jealousy. Liam is dancing with a girl. Niall draws into a corner from where he has a perfect sight of them, so he can study the girl and see why she thinks she has the right to be so up and close to Liam. She has long, flowing brown hair that she keeps flipping around like she’s in a shampoo commercial, she’s wearing a skimpy, skin-tight dress that leaves nothing to the imagination. She’s rubbing back against Liam and Liam has his hands on her hips.

Niall is nearly overcome with the urge to run over and pull her hair; hopefully it’ll turn out to be a wig and she’ll be ridiculed, Liam will be appalled and then he and Niall can skip into the sunset together; or maybe, Niall should just interrupt and steal Liam’s attention with dance skills he doesn’t possess. Niall blinks and quickly shakes his head; he has to get control of his fantasies. 

Niall stands there for a few more minutes, staring holes into the girl until some dude bumps into him and sneers something rude to Niall. Niall decides he needs air or else he might actually walk over to Liam and find himself in a bit of predicament.

Apparently, outside is just as, if not worse than the inside. There’s a bunch of people littering the lawn, sucking faces and Niall has to be careful he doesn’t step on anyone. There’s a sudden hard smack to his bum and Niall jumps about half a mile into the air, releasing a very girly squeak, his hands quickly covering his behind. He spins around with burning cheeks only to see some drunk chick, leering at him.

“Hey babe, wanna get freaky?” She says and she looks absolutely smashed; she’s swaying on her feet and Niall has a feeling she’s going to collapse any second. 

“Uh-ehmm…” Niall’s mouth falls open and closes repeatedly and he probably looks like a fish; he’s never really been good at communicating with the opposite gender, explains why he’s never had a girlfriend. The girl would probably already lose interest if there was one sober fiber in her body, but she stumbles into Niall, falling against him. Niall has no choice but steady her with his arms around her.

“Ehm…you ok?” Niall asks concerned, she mutters something from where she has her face stuffed in Niall’s neck. Niall is a little lost, not sure what to do when he finds fingers fumbling with his zipper. “Wah! What are you doing!” Niall exclaims and slaps her hands away. “Wanna give you a blowjob,” the girl slurs and persistently tugs at Niall’s zipper, trying to zip it down. Niall nearly has a heart-attack when another girl appears.

“Jane! Oh my God!” The girl exclaims and rips the girl - Jane - from Niall. “You creep!” The girl spits and before Niall even knows what’s happening, he receives a burning smack from the girl. “What the fuck!?” Niall cries, clutching his stinging cheek and staring shocked at the girl. The girl looks him up and down with disgust.

“Ugh, Jane wouldn’t look at you twice if she was in her right mind,” She says and with that, she leaves, dragging her drunken friend with her and leaving behind a confused Niall.

“What the actual fuck,” he mutters under his breath, rubbing a hand against his cheek; for a girl, she surely hits hard. Niall huffs and pouts indignantly, he needs to get away from this stupid place and with that in mind, he turns on his heels and stalks away.

The worst part about this party, is that it’s in the middle of a fucking wood. If Niall remembers correctly from all the movies he has watched, it’s always bad news if the house is in the middle of the woods. Niall just wants to find a nice tree-branch that can keep him company and he can sit by until the others finally decides it’s time to leave.

That’s when he hears some heavy breathing and groaning; in his naïve ears, it sounds like someone in pain and being the ever-curious person that he is, he finds himself following the sounds, pulling deeper into the woods and farther away from the house. 

He doesn’t have to go far and what he finds makes his face burn with the heat of a thousand suns, there having a girl pinned against a tree is none other than _Zayn_. At first, Niall is confused and it’s first after a few moments of curious staring and changing his angle of view, that he realizes what’s going on.

And once he does, he can’t look away.

The girl’s sweater is pulled all the way up over her chest, revealing small, perky breasts, Zayn’s boxers and jeans are pooled by his angles, one arm hooked under one of the girl’s legs, the other hand braced against the tree tunk. Zayn is moving in a fast back and forward motion, making the girl let out loud moans every time he pushes forward, her breasts bouncing. From where Niall stands, he has a perfect view of the girl’s face, the way her red mouth falls open, her brows coming together, some of her curly hair plastered to her forehead. 

Zayn is having sex with a girl in the woods up against a tree and Niall is just standing there, frozen.

Zayn removes his face from where it’d been hidden behind the girl’s thick, curly hair and by doing that, he catches sight of Niall. Niall is absolutely mortified when Zayn tilts his face, his dark, intense eyes looking directly at him and pinning him there. Zayn stares at him without stopping his movements and Niall can’t move even if he wanted to, feeling paralyzed by his own embarrassment and Zayn’s shamelessness. Zayn’s eyes leaves his, flickering down and a devilish smirk spreads across his lips, of course, Niall has to look down as well and when he sees what has got Zayn so amused, he nearly dies right there.

Seemingly, Niall is more interested in what he’s watching than he realized if the shameful bulge in his pants is any indication. Niall sends out a silent prayer for the earth to open up and swallow him. If things weren’t humiliating enough, the girl sees him as well and she lets out a shriek.

“Oh my God! What are you looking at you pervert!” She screams.

Finally, Niall snaps out of it and he turns on his heel, running away, fully intending on never showing his face ever again.

 

+

 

Thought the party couldn’t get worse?

Wrong.

Niall is lost. 

He doesn’t know where on earth he is, everything he can see is an endless sea of tall, dark looming trees. he’s beginning to panic, because he has a strong feeling he’s been wandering in circles all along and he praises the higher powers that the moon is out tonight or else he’d be walking in total darkness.

“Shit,” he murmurs under his breath, hitting his head back against a trunk. He knows this is his own fault, he shouldn’t have sneaked out tonight, he shouldn’t have let Liam’s gorgeous eyes persuade him, really it isn’t like he needed much persuading, but still. Niall admits he’d thought he’d be spending time with Liam, not stumbling around in the woods. He wonders if Liam will even notice that he’s gone, if he’ll come looking for him, Niall smiles foolishly at the thought of Liam finding him, being worried about him. He’s standing up against the trunk in his own little fantasy when he hears a branch snap nearby, his wide eyes turning in the general direction, his heart beating away.

Niall is going to be murdered in these woods or worse, sold into human trafficking where he’ll spend the rest of his days pleasuring hairy men; he shudders at the thought. “Who’s there?” he calls, his voice cracking a little and he swallows when he’s met with total silence. He looks around but he can’t see or hear anything. He decides the worst he can do is just stand there like an easy prey, so he wipes his clammy hands on his jeans and begins speed-walking in a general direction. 

Niall’s heart jumps to his throat when he hears heavy, crunching footsteps behind him, but when he spins around, there’s no one. He’s breathing superficially now, eyes darting around and expecting a psychopathic mass-murderer with a chainsaw to jump at him any second.

“Hello?” he says and his voice sounds annoyingly small and scared. Niall turns around again and he has a mini heart-attack when he sees there’s someone standing behind him. He lets out a shrill scream, backing away quickly, hands covering his face, eyes clenched shut. His ankle catches a fallen, thick branch and another scream falls over his lips as he trips over it, the dirty ground coming up to meet him and Niall lets out a groan at the impact. There’s a second he forgets everything else but the immense pain in his ankle, but the sound of footsteps reminds him of his current predicament. Niall turns around and stares up at the figure hovering over him and he begins to crawl away backwards, pleas tumbling over his lips;

“Oh my God, please don’t kill me, I beg you, I’m not worth the effort-“

A suppressed laughter halts Niall’s rambling and Niall stares up confused, until the person leans closer and Niall finally make out his features.

Zayn.

Zayn smirks down at him. 

“I won’t kill you,” Zayn says with a sweet smile. “My parents would have my head on a platter,” he adds with a shrug and it takes a long moment for Niall to calm down, once he does, he glares viciously at Zayn. “You arse!” He shouts and tries to hit Zayn, but Zayn easily moves out of his reach. “Why’d you scare me like that!? I could’ve died of a heart-attack!!”

“As dramatic as I remember you,” Zayn replies and holds out a hand for Niall. Niall slaps his hand away with a snarl, uses the back of his hand to wipe away the wet earth on his left cheek, before pushing himself to his feet. He winces when a sharp pain erupts from his ankle, he stumbles clumsily and nearly falls flat on his face if Zayn hadn’t caught him around the waist, holding him up. Niall lifts his left foot from the ground and grimaces slightly. “You alright?” Zayn asks and Niall glares at him. “Shut up,” he replies, reaches for a branch nearby and steadies himself against it, he puts his left foot down experimentally only for his ankle to hurt and he groans.

“I think I’ve twisted my ankle, you shitface,” Niall says, slowly lowering himself to the ground, unable to stand upright without pain. Zayn crouches down in front of him and to Niall’s surprise, pulls off Niall’s shoe and sock ignoring Niall’s noise of protests. Zayn carefully touches his ankle with icy fingers and Niall winces. 

“It’s a little swollen,” Zayn says, before wrinkling his nose. “Your foot stinks by the way.” and of course, Niall shoves his foot into Zayn’s pretty face making him fall back on his ass. 

“The fuck,” Zayn glares at Niall. Niall glares back. They enter a heated glaring contest, neither of them willing to back down, too stubborn to realize they’re being childish. Zayn then smirks slowly and Niall narrows his eyes.

“I didn’t know you were a little voyeur,” Zayn says then, successfully making Niall casts his gaze down, his cheeks burning so bright, Niall is afraid they’re glowing red in the dark.

“I-I’m not!” Niall protests, annoyed by the stutter in his voice and he squirms a little, unable to look into Zayn’s laughing eyes.

“You got hard watching me fuck a chick, how is that not voyeuristic?” Zayn says and it’s so obvious that he’s enjoying Niall’s discomfort. Niall splutters something unintelligible out of embarrassment.

“Just-fuck- _shut up_ ,” Niall mutters and stares at a point over Zayn’s shoulder. “It was disgusting, is what it was.”

“Hah, you wished to be in my position,” Zayn says with a snort, dodging the punch Niall aims at him. “I did not!” Niall exclaims. “Oh,” Zayn says then, leveling Niall with a gaze. “Maybe you wanted to be in _her_ position then?” he says with a dirty smirk and Niall’s blushes so hard, he fears he might faint.

“No!” He shouts louder than necessary and Zayn cringes.

“Christ, keep it down, no need to raise your volume,” Zayn says, making himself comfortable on the ground and then he begins rummaging in his pocket, pulling out a fag of cigarettes and Niall watches him wide-eyed fumble with a lighter, lighting the cigarette once the fire flickers. He looks toward Niall.

“My parents don’t know I smoke,” he says, takes a deep suck and blows out; Niall watches it’s light dance before it disappears. “I’d appreciate it, if it was kept that way.” he gives Niall a pointy look and it takes a moment for Niall to realize what he’s trying to say. Niall gives him a small glare. “I’m not going to tell,” he says and begins pulling on his sock and shoe. “I don’t even care; if you want to suck on a cancer stick then by all means, go ahead, I have better things to do with my life.” Niall, of course, doesn’t tell Zayn that he looks hot doing that.

“Yeah, like eye-fucking Liam, right?”

Niall’s eyes widen and he stares at Zayn. “I don’t know what you’re talking about,” he says and focuses on a point over Zayn’s shoulder. Niall shouldn’t be surprised really, he hasn’t exactly done anything to hide his interest in Liam; obviously, Liam is the only one who doesn’t notice. (Talking of which, where the fuck is he? Has he still not noticed Niall is gone?)

“Oh, I think you do,” Zayn says with a slight chuckle, smirks at Niall around the cigarette. “I can practically hear the dirty thoughts you have of him, which is pretty gross by the way, he is my brother after all.”

Niall pulls his lips into a thin line; he refuses to give Zayn any satisfaction that his words are getting to him. “I don’t know what you’re talking about,” Niall repeats again, not having a better comeback and sounds like a broken record. Zayn rolls his eyes, takes another suck of the cigarette, keeps the poisonous smoke inside for a moment before letting it go.

“I bet you fantasize about him bending you over and fucking you hard,” Zayn says nonchalantly, like he’s commenting on the weather, watches with a knowing smirk the way Niall’s neck and face burns the color of ripe tomatoes. And of course, the images infiltrates Niall’s mind, Liam’s glorious naked chest, glinting with beads of sweat, his eyes, his strong arms, his large hands, the bed creaking with every movement-

“No! Shut up!” Niall exclaims, clenching his eyes shut and shoving the images to the dark corner of his mind or else he’ll have a problem. (He’ll most properly pull those images back at a more appropriate time - like when he’s lying on his bed with a box of tissues).

“It’s a shame though, Liam is never going to look at you the same way,” Zayn says and Niall’s heart drops from his chest to somewhere in his stomach. Niall hates Zayn at that moment. “Plus, he has a girlfriend.” Niall’s teeth clench tightly, the image of Liam dancing up close to that girl entering his mind and of course, someone as gorgeous as Liam wouldn’t be single; Niall feels like crying.

“But, I could help you,” Zayn says suddenly, finishing the cigarette and throwing it over his shoulder. He crosses his ankles and looks at Niall with a rather serious expression. Niall eyes him warily.

“How so?” he asks.

Zayn tilts his face a little to the side and studies Niall.

“I can teach you how to catch Liam’s attention and keep it,” Zayn says. 

“Keep talking,” Niall says, reluctantly interested.

Zayn smirks and suddenly gets to his feet, walks over and drops down on the spot next to Niall, leaning against the tree branch, he’s so close that Niall can smell the cigarette smoke on him and when he shifts, their shoulders bumps. Niall looks at him and he doesn’t understand why Zayn found it necessary to come so close.

“I know you have zero experience,” Zayn begins saying and when Niall’s mouth falls open in protest, Zayn talks before he can; “Don’t try to deny it. Have you even had a girlfriend before? or a boyfriend?” Zayn asks and when he turns to look at him, they’re too close for comfort, so Niall resorts to staring straight ahead. “No,” he mutters a little moodily.

Zayn nods.

“Thought so, have you ever kissed then?”

Niall remains silent and feels more than a little embarrassed; he stares down at his fingers, fiddling with them. He can feel Zayn staring at him.

“No surprise there, either,” Zayn says then.

“Asshole,” Niall pouts, cheeks pink.

“That won’t do, though,” Zayn says and brings his knee up to his chest. “Alright then, I’ll have to teach you how to kiss.” Niall’s face snaps toward Zayn so fast, the blonde fears he’ll get a whiplash. Zayn turns to stare at him as well, leaving their face close. “How do you intend on doing that?” Niall asks nervously. Zayn doesn’t say anything, just let his eyes drop to Niall’s lip subtly and Niall’s heart skips over a beat.

“No fucking way,” Niall says quickly, shaking his head. “Liam is going to be my first kiss.”

Zayn snorts. Niall glares.

“So what, you’ll put your clumsy, unexperienced lips to Liam’s?” Zayn asks.

“It’s called inexperienced, you moron,” Niall bites back, feeling a little heartbroken; he hadn’t thought about that. He can just imagine how many people Liam has kissed - just look at his beautiful lips - and Niall wouldn’t know what to do if he ever is to kiss him. 

“Whatever,” Zayn replies. “That’s not gonna work out for you, is all I’m saying.”

“How is teaching me how to kiss going to catch Liam’s attention, because I want some form of guarantee here,” Niall says.

“Trust me, it’s going to be great help,” Zayn says, voice hushed and close to Niall’s ear. “And that’s not all, I’ll teach you.”

Niall swallows, because there’s a sudden change in the air between them that he isn’t sure he likes.

“What else will you teach me?” Niall doesn’t know why he’s whispering, but he is.

Zayn moves a little closer until Niall is hyper-aware of him and through the faint smoke, he smells paint and tea and _sex_ ; Niall loses his breath for a moment. Zayn’s mouth is close to Niall’s ear now, Niall can feel his warmth breath on his earlobe and it makes him shiver.

“I’ll teach you how to touch,” Zayn whispers hotly into his ear, Niall jumps a little when his hand lands heavily on his thigh, his thumb rubs into Niall’s thigh and Niall swallows, not daring to make the smallest movement. “How to turn him on,” Zayn’s hand continues in a painful, slow motion up Niall’s thigh and Niall’s breath hitches in his throat. “What to say,” Zayn nipples Niall’s earlobe, his mouth is scorching hot and it does something to Niall, he can’t explain. “How to be dirty.” Niall feels Zayn’s smirk against his skin. “And of course,” Zayn grabs Niall’s inner thighs with both hands and Niall lets out a choked sound. “How to spread your legs for him.” With those words, Zayn pulls Niall’s thighs apart.

“Fuck you!” Niall splutters and pushes Zayn away. He is absolutely mortified when Zayn moves swiftly between his still parted legs and pins Niall’s hands above his head against the tree. Niall gulps when Zayn looks down at him with a predatory gaze.

“I’ll teach you how to lay back and just take what’s given to you.”

Before Niall can kick Zayn in the nuts, he hears someone shouting his name.

“Niall!? Niall!”

There’s the sound of footsteps, the voices coming nearer and Niall sees beams of sharp light nearby. Zayn moves away from him with a disappointed groan and Niall doesn’t even want to know what he had in mind before the interruption.

“Niall!?”

Niall recognizes Liam’s voice and a rush of relief and something indefinitely warm washes over Niall and he struggles to his feet.

“Liam! Over here!” Niall shouts and he grins when Liam appears behind some trees a little away. He is holding a flash-light in his hand and he blinds Niall when he points it at him, though he quickly lowers.

“Niall!” Liam says in an urgent voice and quickly comes over. “Are you alright? what are you doing here?” he says, touching Niall’s shoulder and looking him over with a worried frown as if looking for visible harm. He looks into Niall’s eyes with warm one and Niall practically melts. “Are you alright?” he asks again. “We were leaving and we couldn’t find you, I got so worried that something had happened.”

“I’m okay,” Niall says; sweet, caring Liam, he’s so perfect. “I twisted my ankle when Zayn scared me though,” Niall says and looks pointedly at Zayn who’s standing under the shadow of a tree. Liam follows his eyes and looks surprised. “Oh, Zayn, here you are,” he says, sounding relieved. Zayn steps out from under the shadows, hands buried in his tight pants and he shrugs.

“Yeah, are we leaving?” He asks and Liam nods. He turns to look at Niall with wide, guilty eyes. “Niall, I’m so sorry, I shouldn’t have left you when we arrived, I lost track of time, can you forgive me?” Like Niall can even get mad at Liam when he puts on that puppy look. “It’s cool,” Niall says, something that feels like butterflies batting in his belly. “It’s all good now.” _now that you’re with me_

“You twisted your ankle?” Liam says then, remembering Niall’s words and looks down with a frown. “Do you think you can walk?” Niall experimentally takes a few steps forward and winces. Then Liam is there, putting an arm around his back for support, and he’s so close, Niall can feel his body heat.

“I’ll carry you.”

Before Niall can even register his words, he finds himself lifted up in Liam’s strong arms, bridal-style and Niall’s brain short-circuits. He lets out an embarrassing sound, automatically clinging to Liam. Liam chuckles.

“Hold on tight to me,” he says with a warm smile, and the boy has no idea what he’s doing to Niall. Niall’s heartbeat skyrockets and he immediately looks over Liam’s shoulder to avoid Liam’s eyes. He catches eyes with Zayn, who’s looking at him with a raised brow. Niall childishly sticks his tongue at him and Zayn shakes his head with an eye roll.

Niall doesn’t need Zayn, he’ll get Liam by himself.


End file.
